Industrial Manslaughter in the Northern Territory

February 25, 2020

This Bill introduces a new offence of industrial manslaughter into the Territories work, health and safety laws. The commencement date for the new offence is yet to be confirmed.

Under the new laws a person commits the offence of industrial manslaughter if they have a health and safety duty and they intentionally engage in conduct that breaches that duty and which causes the death of an individual. The person must have been reckless or negligent about the conduct breaching the health and safety duty and causing the death.

The offence applies to both individuals and corporate entities with maximum penalties of ‘imprisonment for life’ for individuals and 65,000 penalty units (currently equating to $10,205,000) for bodies corporate.